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tow truck pulls an abandoned vehicle on an exit
ramp along I-75 North during the winter storm January 29, 2014 in
Atlanta, Georgia
(Daniel Shirey/Getty)
Cities like Atlanta and Birmingham ground to a halt this week
as freak snow and ice storms caused traffic jams, power outages, and
mass disruption. Why did the South cope so poorly, and should
Northerners who are mocking the response think twice? As Clinton Yates at the Washington Post and Brian Bartlett at Gizmodo
have pointed out, many Southern cities don't have the budgets to plan
for the snow, and the weather is rare enough that a big reaction to a
little snow should be expected. We open the phones for anyone with ties
to the South to provide some context. Call 212-433-9692 or post below.
Post by Brian Lehrer.
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Comments [43]
Let's not forget hurricane sandy
in NYC... While people in the south who are more accustomed to hurrican
weather, prepare for, and typically aren't very phased by hurricane
season, New York isn't capable of handling hurricane conditions and
that's why the outcome was so bad. Did southerners make fun of them for
being incapable to handle the destruction of Sandy?
A couple of inches of snow wasn't the problem in Atlanta, the circumstances of the day is what turned everything into chaos. Anyone can handle a couple of inches -- even, dare I say, Floridians -- but with everyone being on the roads at the same time to the ice on the roads getting worse, to a city that's just not built to handle extreme conditions and have those protocols in place.
I'm a Floridian, who also lived in Minnesota, and now living in Atlanta.
A couple of inches of snow wasn't the problem in Atlanta, the circumstances of the day is what turned everything into chaos. Anyone can handle a couple of inches -- even, dare I say, Floridians -- but with everyone being on the roads at the same time to the ice on the roads getting worse, to a city that's just not built to handle extreme conditions and have those protocols in place.
I'm a Floridian, who also lived in Minnesota, and now living in Atlanta.
Jan. 30 2014 03:25 PM
Score: -1/1
Score: -1/1
It would not be mean to make
fun...it would be kind of stupid. NYC deals with snow on a regular
basis. It would be imprudent of Southern states to maintain enough
equipment to deal with snow in every part of the state. This is going
to cause snafus due to forecasting etc from time to time.
Heck, we couldn't even get it right on the East Side, right?
Heck, we couldn't even get it right on the East Side, right?
Jan. 30 2014 02:00 PM
Score: 0/0
Score: 0/0
Do you mean, people in New York do much better in snow/cold? Really? Haven't noticed it.
Jan. 30 2014 01:36 PM
Score: 1/1